The MOBA and Battle Royale genres are both new genres that took to the front stage of competitive gaming in the 21st century, so it was only a matter of time before someone asked the question: but why can’t we have both? Eternal Return: Black Survival is the answer to that question—or at least it is for now. In this seven month-old Early Access game by Nimble Neuron, players can choose from twenty-two characters to fight across the fifteen zones of Lumia Island. Despite being very young, it has already gotten the attention of many players globally, especially in Korea and Southeast Asia. It wouldn’t be wrong to think that this up and coming game has a very promising future, provided it plays its cards right. So what exactly makes this game unique?

I Have to Make Things?

If you’ve played MOBAs like League of Legends and DOTA 2 before, the first question you ask when going into a game of Eternal Return or ER:BS is “where’s the shop?”. Here, every item in the game isn’t bought, but crafted—from weapons to armor to food and drink. And you get to craft these by opening containers in the map, receiving different items depending on what zone you are in. Since most items need components from different parts of the map, you also have to get around the map a lot. Time management and planning are the first skill that one learns when playing ER:BS. Knowing when to fight, and when to loot, when to craft or cook is the difference between stomping a lobby after your first few kills, or dying to the first enemy character you see.

Crafting a high rarity item gives you a large amount of experience

There Is No Circle

ER:BS defies the norm of the battle royale genre by introducing a day/night cycle which randomly restricts entry points of interest (POI) instead of a ring to force engagements. The cycle makes it so that every 2 miutes of day and night chooses a random POI as a yellow zone, which after another cycle turns red, wherein players cannot stay for more than 30 seconds or risk death. Couple this with a fast travel system in hyperloop, which is accessible from telephone booths and the like to be able to teleport to any zone available on the map.

This gives players another reason to be quick with getting their items. Getting caught in a yellow zone that’s about to turn red but still not finding that bandage to upgrade your weapon is a very risky thing to do, but sometimes it is also the only way to complete your build without falling behind everyone else in the lobby.

Using a hyperloop can get you across the map very quickly

Combat and Mastery

You only live once in ER:BS, raising the stakes and making every encounter more memorable and important to getting the win. What you do with that life is very important, because every action that you do, even moving, contributes to your Mastery. Mastery is a collection of actions done in ER:BS and contributes to your character’s stat growth. Walking gives Move Experience, crafting gives Crafting Experience, etc. What’s really important is Weapon Mastery. At levels 7 and 14 of weapon mastery, your characters get an extra ability based on the weapons that they’re using. Daggers have a mini blink ability, rapiers get a dash, swords can parry, and many many more. This adds a lot to the pre-existing kits of 4 abilities that your characters have by default.

The whip weapon skill pulls enemies close to user and knocks them up for a short duration

Everything you do in the game makes you stronger

Community

The MOBA and Battle Royale genres are both new genres that took to the front stage of competitive gaming in the 21st century, so it was only a matter of time before someone asked the question: but why can’t we have both? Eternal Return: Black Survival is the answer to that question—or at least it is for now. In this seven month-old Early Access game by Nimble Neuron, players can choose from twenty-two characters to fight across the fifteen zones of Lumia Island. Despite being very young, it has already gotten the attention of many players globally, especially in Korea and Southeast Asia. It wouldn’t be wrong to think that this up and coming game has a very promising future, provided it plays its cards right. So what exactly makes this game unique?

Experiment Complete?

The game has a lot of promise, but it’s not perfect. It has a steep learning curve, with characters that feel clunky and items and looting and building that can be unorthodox to say the least. The balancing (ahem Aya) has a couple of outliars, and it’s not without its fair share of bugs. The playerbase all has ample experience with the game so you can expect the first few hours of this game to be quite the grind.

It might not be the most beginner friendly game, but it’s a lot of fun and it offers a fresh experience to those who are burnt out of playing their typical MOBAs and Battle Royales. Its characters are not the most unique, but they’re definitely enjoyable to play, and there’s always the joy of winning. So if you ever decide to sign up, we’ll see you around Lumia Island, Test Subject.